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(No Model.) 2 S heets+Sheet 1.

J. E. HOWARD. MACHINERY FOR FINISHING, POLISHING, 0B. SURFAGING qomzs.

No. 530,845. I Patented Dec. 11, 1.894.

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(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

J. E. HOWARD. MAGHINERY FOR FINISHING, POLISHING, 0B. SUEFAGING GORKS.

No. 530,845. Patented Dec. 1 1,1894.

JOHN E. HOWARD, OF LONDON, ENGLAND, ASS-IGNOR. TO THE CORK -Nrrnn ST TES PATENT CFFIGE.

COMPANY, LIMITED, OF SAME PLACE.

MACHINERY FOR FINISHING, POLISHING, QR'SURFACING CORKS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 530,845, dated December 11, 1894. Application filed February 6,1894. Serial No. 499,297. (No model.) Patented in England July 6 1893, ITO-13,225-

T0 at whom it may concern:

Beitknown that I, JOHN EISENHARDT HOW- ARD, manufacturer, a subject of the Queen of Great Britain, residing at 73 Minories, London, E. England, have invented Machinery for Finishing, Polishing, or Surfacing Corks, (for which I have obtained a patent in Great Britain, numbered 13,225, and dated July 6, 1893,) of which the following is a specification. 10 This invention relates to the manufacture of corks and consists of machinery or apparatus for finishing, polishing, smoothing, cleaning or otherwise surfacing the cork by grinding and an especial object of my present in- I 5 Vention is to produce a machine or apparatus which will automatically adapt itself to varying sizes and shapes of the corks to be treated according to my inventionso that a quantity of corks to be surfaced of various sizes and shapes may be placed intoa hopperand thence fed to the machine which will receive and hold each cork successively and present same to the abradingv surface and give the required amount of grinding to the surface of each such cork irrespective ofits size or shape that is to.

say a large cork may be succeeded by a smaller one and a round cork succeeded by an oval or other shaped cork and all alike will successively receive the required amount of grinding to finish, polish or surface, due, same. My present invention is as follows: On a suitable frame or supportI arrange and mount a suitable abradingsurfaceadvantageously a grinding disk revolving in a vertical plane -capable of being revolved by a driving band and fast and loose pulleys or in other suitable manner and also may be capable of being adjusted in any direction required-all of which is well close proximity to this abradingsurface I arrange and mount a movable table, platform or support (which for the sake of brevity I shall hereinafter refer to as the platform which has a double movement imparted-thereto in a horizontal or other direction, viz: a reciprocating movement parallel or thereabout to the grinding surfaceand a second movement toward and away from the said grinding surfaceas hereinafterexplained. This double 5o movement may be obtained by arranging and mounting said platform after the manner of known and understood. In-

arrow y Fig. 2 and showing the cork and feeding appliance in position.

the Well known slide rest for lathes or in any ,othersuitable manner. For instance the said double movements may be imparted to the said platform by means of a crank or equivalent on a slowly revolving shaft (the latter at right angles to the plane of the abrading disk) actuating a crank arm or rod suitably attached to a slide carrying the said platform and thus imparting to said platform a movement parallel (or thereabout) to the abrading surface while a cam or cams (or equivalenton the said crank shaftor otherwisesuitably mounted) when the said platform has been moved (by the said crank) to the position farthest from the center of the grinding diskwill cause the said platform to bodily recede away from the said grinding disk and then the said crank moves back the platform to its position nearest to the center of said disk and then the cam (or a second cam or a spring or equivalent) causes the platform to again ap-. proach toward the grinding disk and the operation is repeated and so on, or the requisite double motion may be imparted to the said platform in any other equivalent or suitable manner. Upon this said platform (to Which' this movement in two directions is imparted) I arrangeand mount the means adapted to hold and rotate each piece of corkin turn against the abrading surface and drop same when finished as will be hereinafter fully explained.-

In order that my present invention may be easily understood and readily carried into 8 5 practice I will proceed to fully describe same with reference to the drawings hereunto annexed.

Figure 1 is a plan of the machine with the cork feeding device and hopper removed. 0

Fig. 2 is a side view of the machine-looking in the direction of the arrow ,2 Fig. l but omitting the driving shaft and crank arm and cam, &c., thereon.

Fig. 3 is a front view of, the machine looking in the direction of the hopper Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts throughout.

a is the standard or fram whole machine.

b b are fast and loose pulleys on the supporting the I oo parted to the crank arm or main driving shaft b-this latter being journaled in brackets a or otherwise suitably carried in or on the main frame a.

A small toothed wheel 19 (Fig. 3) on shaft 1) gears with the large toothed wheel 0 this latter being fixed on an axle journaled in the bracket or bearing 0? carried by the main frame a said axle also having rigidly fixed thereon the cam faced wheel (1 (or this cam surface (1 may be fixed and immovable) as hereinafter explained. The aforesaid toothed wheel 0' carries a crank pin a thereon by means of which reciprocating motion is imconnecting rod 0 which at its other end is suitably connected to the slide f carrying the sliding platform 6. This pin a is adjustably attached to a so that said pin a may be fixed at a greater or less distance from the center of c and thereby impart more or less travel to f through the rod 0. "he said slide or support f of the platform 6 is formed of a dovetail form at f f which fits and slides upon the corresponding dovetail bed or guide a fixed to or forming part of the main frame a. Besides the reciprocating motion thus imparted to the slide f (carrying the platform 6) in a parallel or approximately parallel direction to the plane of the abrading disk at the platform 6 is carried in a transverse slideway in the upper part of the aforesaid support f (after the manner of the well-known slide rests for lathes) so that a reciprocating motion toward and away from the face of said disk :1: can be imparted to said platform e by means of the cam d and cam arm d pivoted at d to the main frame a and which by its end 61 (pivoted to the arm e fixed to the said platform esee Fig. 2) pushes in the platform e (by the action of the cam d) toward the grinding disk w against the action of the spring g which i normally keeps the said platform 6 drawn out from the grinding disk or. The said arm a (to which the cam lever 61' is pivoted at d passes through a guideway formed for same transversely through a and then rises vertically and passes through or into a slot e* (see Fig. 1) so that the platform e can move parallel to the face of disk :1: upon the upper end of e the latter having no such parallel motion but only movement toward and away from the grinding disk m. Upon this platform e three (or other suitable number of) vertically disposed r rollers h h h2 are mounted upon vertical axles or bearings upon which they can each and all independently rotate. The roller 72. is mounted upon a small independent slide h which is adjustable upon the platform 6 (sliding in suitable guideways provided for this purpose) by means of the tension screw e carried in and free to revolve in the arm or lug e on the platform e. Thus the roller It can be adjusted and held at a greater or less distance from the rollers h and h and consequently any required degree of tension cambe given to the beltz' horizontally disposed around said rollers h h and W.

The roller It has fixed to the upper part thereof (clear of the belt '6) a grooved wheel or pulley j in which operates a rope, cord, belt, ohain or equivalent 7c and which for the sake of brevity I shall hereinafter refer to as the rope 70. This rope 7c is passed once or more round the pulley j and the one end of such rope 1a is attached to the bracket Z which latter is rigidly fixed to the main frame a, see Fig. 3, while the other or free end of said rope 7c is passed over a guide pulley 10 Fig. 3 and at its end 70 carries a weight k or is otherwise suitably held so that when the platform e in the slidefis drawn backward and forward by the crank arm a parallel to the face of the abrading disk as thereby the pulley j has to pass along the rope 7c and consequently is thereby rotated backward and forward as the platform 6 is caused to travel as described. The rotary motion thus imparted to the pulley j is communicated to the roller h and thereby the belt 2' is carried round for the purpose of rotating the cork as hereinafter explained. This arrangement of the rope is allows for the motion of the platform carrying roller h and pulley j thereon toward and away from the disk as and furthermore by changing the pulley j for another pulley of larger or smaller size therebyl can diminish or increase the speed of travel imparted to belt 2'.

m is a ledge projecting from ejust beneath the bottom edge of the flexible band 7; and this ledge m carries on top thereof two vertical pins or idle rollers 0 which act as retaining pins or guards to retain the cork on the rest during grinding, (i. e. surfacing, &c.)

w is the rest (carried on a bracket to fixed to the main frame a) upon which the cork is slid along while being rotated against the abrading disk at. This rest w is capable of vertical as well as horizontal adjustment.

1) is the hopper or reservoir above the machine carried on the supporting arm (1 fixed to the main frame a.

r is an agitator wheel part of which 0perates within the converging bottom part of the hopper p to keep the corks therein con- :15 tinuously fed endwise down the channel s leading to the point where they are deposited one by one from said channel son the rest w between the vertical guide rollers 0 0 as hereinafter explained. (See Fig. 3).

The agitator wheelr is driven by an endless belt or band T which in its turn passes round a pulley fixed on the main driving axle I). See Fig. 3.

t t are fast and loose pulleys on the axle 12 5 shaft to which the abrading disk :1: is fixed, these pulleys t 15 being driven by the traveling belt t from any convenient source of power. These pulleys t t and axle carrying the abrading disk or: are mounted in a bear- :30

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ing formed in the forked arms 6 of the swiveling support t 'mounted upon the main frame a (see Fig. 2) so as to be capable of swiveling adjustment thereon in any well-known or suitable manner as is well understood.

At the moment it is desired to drop the next cork onto the rest to a projecting arm 6 on the platform 6 strikes a projecting pin a on the pinu and by the movement of thesaid platform presses back the spring u and arm u.

and so releases the bottom cork in the guide 3 and the whole series of corks drops down the channel 8 until the lowermost cork is resting on the rest to. The movement of the platform e now releases the spring 16 which thereupon-pushes the retaining arm 11. against 'the bottom-most cork o in the channel sand thereby holds same and prevents any more corks dropping down while the cork n thus deposited on the rest to is moved away and presented against the abrading disk w as explained.

The operation is as follows:The readyshaped corks to be polished, finished or otherwise surfaced (and which need not be of exactly the same gage or shape) are placed in large numbers in the hopper p. The agitator wheel 7' keeps'these stirred up so that said corks are continuously fed endwi'se down the guide channel 5 to the point where said channel 8 terminates just above the top edge of the flexible belt 1' where the bottom-most cork o in the channel 8 is retained in position by the spring arm u as already explained. This spring arm is pressed back as before explained-and the bottom-most cork deposited on the rest w. This spring arm a is then released and further corks are thereby prevented from dropping out. The action of the cam (1 against the spring g'now moves the platform e toward the abrading disk 00 so that the flexible band 'i presses the cork n against the abrading disk x. Next the motion of the crank pin c (Fig. 1) now causes the platform 6 to travel in a parallel direction acrossthe face of the abrading disk 00 with the cork n in contact therewith and retained on the rest 20 by the uprights 0 0 as before explained. Immediately the crank rod 0 begins to move the slidefcarrying the platform e parallel with the face of the abrading disk w'thereupon the rope is imparts rotary motion through the pulleyj and roller h to the belt 1' which latter being in frictional contact withthe vertically disposed cork n thereby imparts rotarymotion to thesaid cork n which is thus caused to rotate upon its own axis while presented to the abradin g disk :1: (which abrading disk may have varying degrees of fineness of abrading material circularly arranged on its face) so that as the cork is thus rotated against and moved across its face it will be abraded and thus very. perfectly finish,

tion of travel of the abrading disk is from the top of the cork downward so that the tendency of the abrading disk 00 isto keep said.

cork down upon its rest w. The parallel motion of the platform e may be continued until the cork n is clear of the outer edge of the abrading disk x whereupon the finished cork drops into a suitable receptacle to receive same (not shown) or if desired the cam d and spring 9 may be arranged to begin to draw back the platform 6 before the cork n reaches the outer edge of a; whereupon the finished cork "n is dropped into a suitable receptacle. The crank arm 0 then draws the slidefcarrying the platform 6 back in a parallel direction across the disk at and the cam 01 through its connections d d d then moves same again toward the abrading disk :1: whereupon the nextcork to be ground is delivered onthe rest to as before described and the operation is repeated-and so on.

It will be obvious that many of the parts and details of the machine and means of actuating same may be varied without departing from the true nature of my inventionthe essential feature of which is the traveling flexible holding band z' adapted not only to thereby rotate the cork while being polished,

. 850., but also adapting itself to varying sizes and shapes of the corks to be finished and has many other advantages especially the simplicity of the construction of the machine, its automatic operation and large output from each machine.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as'new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States, is-

1 In a machine for finishing, polishing, or surfacing corks by grinding, the combination with an abrading surface; of a platformmovable toward and away from said abrading surface, and means for moving said platform; and a flexible cork holder mounted on said platform and consisting essentially of an endless traveling band adapted to hold corks of various shapes and sizes against the abrading surface, and to rotate the cork while in said position, substantially as described.

2. In a machine for finishing polishing or surfacing corks by grinding-the combination with an abrading surface of a platform adapted to travel across the face of said abrading surface and a flexible cork holder consisting of an endless traveling band vertically disposed and traveling in a horizontal plane round and the vertical supporting rollers carried on said platform.

3. In a machine for finishing polishing or surfacing corks by grinding-the combiner" polish or surface the said cork. The direction with an abrading surface of a platform adapted to travel across the face of said abrading surface an endless traveling band verti cally disposed to travel in a horizontal plane around its vertical supporting rollers on said platform to form a flexible cork holder and means to adjust the tension of said endless band.

4. In a machine for finishing polishing or surfacing corks by grinding-the combination with an abrading surface of a platform adapted to travel across the face of said abrading surface, an endless traveling band vertically disposed to travel in a horizontal plane round its vertical supporting rollers on said platform to form a flexible cork holder, means to adjust the tension of said endless band, a

rest for the corks to be successively deposited thereon endwise and means to feed said corks one at a time endwise onto said rest.

5. In a machine for finishing polishing or surfacing corks by grinding-the combination with an abrading surface of a platform adapted to be moved parallel to and also at right angles to the said abrading surface, a flexible cork holding device carried on said platform, means to impart traveling motion to said flexible cork holding device so as to rotate the cork while presented thereby against the said abrading surface and means to proble cork holding pel the said platform and parts carried thereon in a parallel direction to-as well as means to move said platform toward and awayfromsaid abrading surface substantially in the manner and for the purposes hereinbefore set forth.

6. In a machine for finishing polishing or surfacing corks by grinding-the combination with a grinding disk of an endless traveling belt z, vertically disposed rollers hh h supporting same, a movable platform e carrying said rollers and belt and adapted to slide in opposite horizontal directions, means to impart reciprocating movement to said platform in said two directions, means to impart rotary motion to one or more of said vertical rollers carrying said belt and means to alter the relative positions of said rollers h h 71, so as thereby to adjust the tension of said flexiband i, all substantially in the manner and for the purposes hereinbefore set forth.

I. E. HOWARD.

Witnesses:

H. BIRKBECK, 34 Southampton Buildings, London, W. 0.,

Charlie red Patent Agent.

GEO. W. KEY,

Clerk to the above. 

